Hiking in the French Alps–Le Petit Balcon Sud Trail

I still have three more France posts to write. I’m hoping to be done by next week before we go away again.

So, to take you back: this is is the Chamonix portion of our trip to France in August. If you missed the other posts, you can read about our crossing from England to France, as well as our time in Annecy here and here. And if you feel like it might help you to get into the mood, you can read about our cheesy Alpine food adventures here, here, and here.

This was the view from our hotel room in Les Houches, France. Many mornings we couldn’t even see those mountains because they were covered in clouds. Les Houches is about a 10 minute drive (or free bus ride) from Chamonix. I would have liked to have stayed in Chamonix proper, but everything was sold out. Remember, we went in August, the prime holiday month for Europeans. Happily, we found a two bedroom apartment with a kitchen, living room, and two balconies in this nearby town. It was self-catering, which means there wasn’t daily maid service and you had to make your own beds, but I actually liked that. It felt really private and “ours”.

A map of the Chamonix area. You can see that the town is nestled in a valley. Mont Blanc and the glaciers are located on the left side of the map. The hike that we did on this day is on the right side of the map.

Before I take you up into the mountains, here are a few shots of the very beautiful alpine town of Chamonix. Much of the town is pedestrian only, which was very nice. There are lots of little shops (closed for two hours during lunch!), many delicious restaurants, beautiful views, and clean mountain air.

We were in the area for five days. This first day was the warmest. People were walking around in shorts and tank tops. Indeed, we were quite warm on our hike.

I was surprised at some of the architecture here. I don’t know quite what I was expecting, but I didn’t think it would look like this.

The hardest part about this trail was the very steep climb from Chamonix into the mountains. As I said, it was quite hot, plus we were hiking on roads, so it just wasn’t very interesting scenery either. But, once we got onto the trail itself–ahhhhhhhh. We were happy for the shade and lack of automobiles.

Up and up and up we went–up many switchbacks. There were a few mountain bikers flying down the side of the mountain. How they managed to avoid hitting the trees is a mystery.

I found this quartz crystal along the path. I did take this one home. If you know me, you know that I can’t resist a pretty rock. Or two. Or a pocket full.

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But the views were what made the hike worthwhile. I believe that is the Glacier des Bossons. I have never seen a glacier before. They are huge. This one was so nice and clean looking. I’ll post pictures of the Mer de Glace in a few days. You’ll see what I mean. And yes, that is snow on the mountains. Along our trail, we found some clear streams–I am sure melted snow. The water was so cold!

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Another shot from the trail. It smelled so good up there.

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I loved it when the clouds sat on the mountain tops like that.

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Here we are at end of the beautifully maintained trail–about four hours later. It was a pretty challenging hike. We weren’t quite used to the altitude yet, so I’m glad we didn’t try one of the more strenuous trails. We had considered walking all the way to our town, but we were out of water at this point, so we made our way down to catch the bus back to our hotel.

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If you stay in the area, you are given a Hotel Guest Pass card. It allows you free travel on all Chamonix buses (except the night bus) and the valley train (I can’t remember how far) for the duration of your stay.

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We had to wait 15 minutes for the bus, but that wasn’t a problem when we had this to look at. By the way, the bus was SO crowded by the time it got to our stop. We had to stand, pressed in like sardines, while the bus whipped around. We drove ourselves into town after that.

Next time: Tramway du Mont Blanc.

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